Wednesday, October 26, 2016

A SHORT SPEECH BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Frederick Douglass.

Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday,
April 15, 1893.

PAGE FOUR—EDITORIALS.

A Speech
by Frederick Douglass.

There has always lain latent in the heart of Frederick Douglass one particular ambition of a personal nature. He has had ambition
for his race and given his best years to help them. During the war he sent his
sons to fight and maintained their families himself while they were in the
army. The fame he has won as orator and public official has been quite as much
satisfaction to him on account of his race as on his own account. But there
remained the one ambition that he cherished on his own account and nobody can
blame him who knows what that was. It was that after his life work was well
nigh done, he might go back to the county in Maryland in which he was born and
reared a slave, buy one of the handsomest old plantation places there and end
his days as one of the first citizens.

His wish is to be gratified. He has
negotiated for the purchase of one of the finest estates in Talbot county, Md.
Recently while on his way to The Villa, which is the name of his new place, he
stopped at Easton and made a short speech to the colored school children there.
The best part of his remarks was that they are to be commended to white
children as well as black. Mr. Douglass said:

I once knew a little colored boy whose
mother and father died when he was but 6 years of age. He was a slave and had
no one to care for him. He slept on a dirt floor in a hovel and in cold weather
would crawl into a meal bag head foremost and leave his feet in the ashes to
keep them warm. Often he would toast an ear of corn and eat it to satisfy his hunger,
and many times has he crawled under the barn or stable and secured eggs, which
he would roast in the fire and eat. That boy did not wear trousers, as you do,
but a tow linen shirt. Schools were unknown to him, and he learned to spell
from an old Webster spelling book and to read and write from copies on cellar and
barn doors, while boys and men would help him. He would then preach and speak and
soon became well known. He became presidential elector, United States marshal,
United States recorder, United States diplomat and accumulated some wealth. He
wore broadcloth and did not have to divide crumbs with the dogs under the
table. That boy was Frederick Douglass. What was possible for me is possible
for you. Don't think because you are colored you can't accomplish anything. Strive
earnestly to add to your knowledge. So long as you remain in ignorance, so long
will you fail to command the respect of your fellow man.

American
Slang.

When analyzed, much of it will be found to
be no slang at all, but good idiomatic English, conveying by metaphor a meaning
more vivid than any other set of words could do. We may exclude altogether as
real slang and unworthy the words that mean nothing at all, but are a mere
gabble of sound.But let us take up some
of the expressions that are condemned by self-styled writers of classical
English. There, for instance, is the popular phrase, "He is in it,"
or "not in it," as the case may be. Sometimes it is made emphatic by
the variation "in it with both feet." Does not this suggest at once
ample measure, as when one is walking through deep snow or sand? It is not only
suggestive. but actually imaginative and poetical.

There, too, is the phrase to "get it in
the neck" when a misfortune has happened to one. Was not cutting the head off
the old way of executing people? The phrase "get it in the neck" is
therefore an allusion and even a classic allusion to a custom that is still the
vogue in France. Take that saying, "He is out of sight." If you are
extremely fortunate and happy, what more natural than that you are so covered
with good luck as to be out of sight, or with misfortune by the same way should
the contrary be the case?

It is true that one would hardly use any of
the above phrases in a funeral sermon or a college commencement oration. But
worse phrases than they have become in time good classic English. We would not
wish to be understood as recommending for common use, however, the expression, "He
is talking through his hat."

Y. M. C.
A. ANNIVERSARY.

Special
Services in two Churches Sunday Evening.

The fifth
anniversary exercises of the Young Men's Christian association of Cortland will
occur to-morrow. There will be special services all day. The boys' meeting will
be held in the association rooms at 3 o'clock as usual. The men's meeting at 4
o'clock will be addressed by Mr. John F. Moore of Albany, assistant state secretary,
and Rev. E. D. Face of Syracuse university. Services will be held in the
evening at 7:30 o'clock at the Homer-ave. and Presbyterian churches, the
Baptist, Congregational and Episcopal churches uniting. No collection will be
taken or subscriptions solicited at either church. The following are the
programs in the respective churches:

SAN FRANCISCO, April 15.—The last congress
passed a measure granting the privilege to W. F. White and a Chinese named
Chang Pak Quai of bringing 1,000 Chinese to the World's Fair for the purpose of
putting up a Chinese village. To-day the steamer China is due here. She has on
board nearly five hundred Chinese who are said to be on their way to the
World's Fair. The delicate question is presented to the collector of the port
of determining who are entitled to go to Chicago and who should remain here. As
far as known these Chinese have no papers to show that they are part of the
Chinese village. It is expected that every Chinese who arrives during the next
five or six months will assert that he or she is en route to the exposition.

The Big
Gun in Chicago.

CHICAGO, April 15.—The great Krupp gun
reached South Chicago last night and will be taken into the World's Fair
grounds and set up to-day.

Fire in
the Screen Factory.

About 5:45 o'clock this morning George
Simpson, night engineer at the screen works, discovered that the casement to
the skylight had caught fire. As the man is a deaf mute, it was impossible for
him to yell, and he accordingly blew the whistle long and loud. This brought
upon the scene nearly all the men who had been working during the night in the
machine room. The pump was started and pails of water were thrown on the fire.
Mr. Louis Holdridge rushed to Col. Frank Place's residence, where he secured
the key to alarm box No. 313 on the corner of Pomeroy and Port Watson-sts. The
lever was pulled down but the fire bell did not ring. The gongs in the Emerald
and Hitchcock hose rooms rang, however, and also in Chief Peck's house. Mr. Peck
did not hear the fire bell ring and immediately rushed to Fireman's hall, where
he rang the bell by hand.

The Hitchcocks arrived on the scene first,
and laid their hose, but as the men had the fire under control no water was thrown.
The Orris, Water Witch and Hook's got as far as the D., L. & W. railroad
crossing on Port Watson-st., when a freight train pulled in just in front of
them and they were compelled to wait till the engine had taken water, a matter
of about a quarter of an hour. They did not arrive at the fire till it was nearly
extinguished and consequently laid no hose.

The fire is supposed to have originated from
a hot journal. The loss has not been estimated as yet. The engine and electric
motor, which generated the light for the shop were damaged somewhat by water.
The cause of the fire bell's failing to ring is not known but the matter is
being looked up by Mr. Glenn Tisdale who put the system in.

Fire at
East Homer.

The home of Oliver Schermerhorn at East
Homer was burned early this morning. The fire caught in the woodshed—cause
unknown. It was discovered about 2 o'clock by Mr. Schermerhorn, the entire west
part of house being then in flames. Besides Mr. Schermerhorn there were in the
house his mother, who is a helpless invalid, two brothers and a hired
girl.The household was aroused and the
mother carried out, the fire being then raging in the room adjoining the one
where she slept. The only furniture saved was a bed and a sewing machine. The
house cost $1200 six years ago. It was insured for $500.

HOMER
DEPARTMENT.

On account of the storm the work on the
cellar for the new Baptist church, the academy ruins and Mr. Charles Antisdel's
new barn had to be suspended yesterday.

Mr. F. H. Smith is quite seriously ill with
peritonitis.

Word has been received here of the death of
Elias H. Lord, a native of Homer, in Boston, Mass. The deceased was 58 years of
age and twin brother of Mr. Eli H. Lord.

Another large cistern was unearthed in the
cellar for the new Baptist church while excavating yesterday. It was an
unusually large cistern and contained about eight feet of water. A team of
horses narrowly escaped going into it, as it was only covered with loose
partially decayed planks. This makes the third cistern that has been found
since the cellar was begun, besides a well, which had been filled up.

This is the last day that Simmons & Grant's
clothing store remains in town before moving to Fulton.

Word has been received by the officers of
the village to keep their eyes peeled for Herbert Gallery who escaped from the
Western Reform school at Rochester Tuesday
night. The boy is now fourteen years of age and was sent to Rochester from here
two years ago for jumping "coal jimmies." He is well known in this
section. He is four and one-half feet in height, gray eyes and when he escaped
he wore the regulation uniform. His parents still live here and it is thought
that he will visit them. Chief of Police J. E. Sager of Cortland was in town
Thursday looking after the boy but he searched in vain.

The D., L. & W. pay car passed through
about 9:30 o'clock this morning and only stopped long enough to make the boys
happy.

Mr. Fred T. Newcomb is learning the
intricacies of a new wheel.

Mrs. D. L. Brown is now settled in her new
quarters in the Riggs block. She has a fine display of spring goods which are
tastily arranged in the south window. Mr. L. B. Southwick will open his shoe
store in the northern half of the store Monday.

—A typographical error yesterday in the
number of soups served to customers at C. F. Thompson's store made it 200 instead
of 500 as it should have been.

—A newly married man of Hazelton, Pa.,
recently thrashed an editor because the headline, "A Horrible
Blunder," was placed by mistake over his marriage notice.

—The Oneonta Normal school lately had all
the diseases in the category—measles, scarlet fever, mumps, chickenpox and a
few other harmless diseases which go to complete the education of the Normal
girl—Walton Reporter.

—Extra music will be provided for the
anniversary services of the Y. M. C. A. at all the meetings to-morrow afternoon
and evening. Programs may be found in the pews of the various churches in the
morning. All are cordially invited to attend these services.

A Coming
Attraction.

Little's "World," which has been
one of the foremost of America's standard attractions for over fifteen years,
will be seen at the Opera House on April 19. The height
of stage realism is reached, especially in the great wreck scene, when the
steamship is seen to break up and founder at sea, leaving its helpless passengers
adrift on a slight raft on the ocean. The raft scene is, if anything, even more
startling than the former scene, showing the survivors of the wreck helpless at
sea, finally culminating in their rescue by a passing ship. Every piece of
scenery used in the many scenes is carried by the company, and we can confidently
expect one of the best scenic and dramatic treats of the season.

SKIPS
OUT.

Joseph
Gordon Leaves a Wife and Two Children.

A report was in circulation late yesterday
that Joseph Gordon had left the town, a wife and two children besides numerous
debts, and a STANDARD reporter at once started out to get the facts. He learned
from Gordon's neighbors that the report was true and was directed to Mrs.
Gordon's parents' home at 23 Greenbush-st. They have just moved here from
Watertown, and were not settled. Their daughter was not in, but from her
parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Cripps, the reporter learned the following story:
Gordon married their daughter, Mrs. Sarah Gann, about three years ago and moved
to Watertown about a year ago and from there moved to Cortland in February of
this year. The couple did not appear to live very happily together as the
husband, it is alleged, spent about all the money that both of them earned.
Gordon was employed by Mr. C. N. Hardy in the H. M. Whitney company as a
trimmer. The wife worked hard and kept boarders.

On the evening of April 10 Gordon came home
after receiving his pay at the shop, and after collecting $7 in money from the
boarders he started to leave. His wife asked him for the money and he replied
that he had to foot the bills and would keep the money. He left the house and,
it is stated, became intoxicated and left town on the 11:20 train. When he did
not return to his home his wife went to her parents and has remained there ever
since.

Mr. and Mrs. Cripps came here from Watertown
a week ago Wednesday. Their goods have not all arrived and Gordon had the
freight bills. He carried them off by mistake and, as he had no use for them,
he returned them to Mr. Cripps soon after leaving town. The letter was
postmarked at Erie, Pa., and it is supposed that he is now safely lodged in
Canada.

Mr. and Mrs. Cripps say that he left his
wife in much the same way on two previous occasions—leaving also a number of unpaid bills—once when he left Canada for
Watertown and another time when, in February, he left Watertown and came to
Cortland. After he had been gone a short time he would send for his wife.

Gordon is a man about 30 years of age, with
dark hair, black eyes, turn up nose and black mustache and wears a band ring.
He always dresses well and is said to be quite a dude. He is very slightly lame
in his right leg, due to his being thrown out of a carriage when a boy. He is
about five feet eight inches in height and his home is in Chatham, Can.

Mrs. Gordon is of a medium height, has light
brown hair and blue eyes, and is a very pleasant appearing little woman. Her
first husband's name was James Gann. He is dead. Her two children are by her
first husband, two little girls, one 9 and the other 11 years of age. Gordon
left his wife penniless and except that he returned the freight bills has not been
heard from since he disappeared.